Jakob1863
Addicted to Fun and Learning
In the "uptone thread" a post from Thomas Savage:
emphasized the fallibility of subjective listening conclusions and concluded that without some evidence for a benefit it would be better to avoid any evaluation.
Which raises the interesting question what a customer should do.
Let´s assume some measured evidence is available, but as often it´s below the known thresholds of hearing, and even some positive results from a controlled listening test is given; what should a consumer do?
Buy the device "blind"?
Or should he/she nevertheless do a listening test, because no one knows, if the conditions of the mentioned test results are relevant for their situation?
As ThomasSavage mentioned, there always is a risk of subjectivity (bias effects are everywhere, even in more socalled objective attempts after all), but would that risk be smaller or even larger given the evidence?
If personal perceptual evaluation is still a good advice, why should that depend on the additional evidence, given that there is a money back garantuee?
I would not restrict it to devices like the mentioned audio tweaks/gadgets, as even for differences above the known thresholds of hearing, the fallability is still there and furthermore, any intersubject personal differences and preferences will still exist.
So, what to do?
<snip>
He's basically saying he has no clue whether it works or not but it's not expensive so you can try it..
WE know the fallibility of subjective listening conclusions of this kind so I'd recommend steering clear based on the evidence being presented here.
Give the $300 to a veterans charity instead.
emphasized the fallibility of subjective listening conclusions and concluded that without some evidence for a benefit it would be better to avoid any evaluation.
Which raises the interesting question what a customer should do.
Let´s assume some measured evidence is available, but as often it´s below the known thresholds of hearing, and even some positive results from a controlled listening test is given; what should a consumer do?
Buy the device "blind"?
Or should he/she nevertheless do a listening test, because no one knows, if the conditions of the mentioned test results are relevant for their situation?
As ThomasSavage mentioned, there always is a risk of subjectivity (bias effects are everywhere, even in more socalled objective attempts after all), but would that risk be smaller or even larger given the evidence?
If personal perceptual evaluation is still a good advice, why should that depend on the additional evidence, given that there is a money back garantuee?
I would not restrict it to devices like the mentioned audio tweaks/gadgets, as even for differences above the known thresholds of hearing, the fallability is still there and furthermore, any intersubject personal differences and preferences will still exist.
So, what to do?